Gas-extracting apparatus



May 12, 1925;

E. W. HARTMAN GAS EXTRAGTING APPARATUS Filed July 20, 1921 3 SheeiS-Sheet l EMAHUELWHARTMAN IHVENTOR MEL/5MM' May l2, 1925. 1,537,114

E. w. HARTMAN GAS EXTRACTING APPARATUS Filed July 20, 1921 s sheets-sheet 2 EMAHUEL W. HARTMAH 1NvEHT0R BY J man'

May 12, 1925. 1,537,114

E. W. HARTMAN GAS EXTRACTING APPARATUS Filed Ju1y 20, 1921 s sheets-sheet :s

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I III I I ITL I I I I I III I I J I III I III I III I I I I III I III Fig '9.

EMANUEI. w. HARMAN INvEnToR 0 MMRNEY Patented May 12, 1925,

' UNITED STATES EMANUEL W. HARTMAN, OF MIAMI, FLORIDA.

GAS-EXTRACTING APPARATUS.

Application med muy 2o, 1921. serial No. 486,313.

lo all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EMANUEL W. HART' MAN, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Miami, in the county of Dade and State of Florida, have invented a cer.- tain new and useful Improvement in Gaslxtracting Apparatus, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to an improvement in gas extracting apparatus and particularly to that type in which the gas is extracted from shale, tar-sands and other bitumen containing material, the material being subjected to great heat and kept constantly in motion.

One object of this invention is to provide an apparatus which can be operated continuously to extract gas from bitumen containing material, and which is equipped with automatically operated feeding, advancing and discharging mechanism.

Another Aobject of this vinvention is to provide means by which the material being treated is moved from one end of the heated retort to the other a plurality of times, thus insuring the extraction of all the gas possible therefrom. i

Another obiect of this invention is to providea chain drag having plates which contact with and advance the material on both upper and lower runs.

A further object of this invention is the. provision of a duplex apparatus having two separatelyy heated and operated charge handling com artments and a single intermediate compartment which acts as a cracking tower for the extracted gas from both com'- partments.` Y

A still further object of'this invention is the provision of feed and discharge openings automatically controlled in order te reduce the entry of air into the retort to a minimum.

Other objects will appear from an examination of the following description together with the drawings which are referred to therein and in which Fig. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view taken on the. line 1-1 of Figs. 2 and 7 Fig. 2 is a cross sectional view taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Figs. 3, 4 and 5 aredetail' views of the,

'retort is attained.

chain drag, Fig. 4 being taken on the line 4 4 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 6 is a transverse sectional view taken on the line 6--6 of Figs. 1 and 2;

Fig. 7 is a transverse sectional view taken on the line 7-7 of Figs. l and 2;

Fig. 8 is an elevation of one end of the apparatus partly in section on the line 8 8 of Fig. 2;

Fig. 9 is an elevation of the other end of the apparatus, and;

Figs. 10 and l1 are detail views of the feeding mechanism.

The treatment of shale and other bitumen containing material in order to extract gas therefrom is carried out by means of a retort into which the material to be treated is subjected to great heat until the operation 1s completed. The extracted gases are led Volf to a cracking tower, the exhausted charge is removed from the retort and a fresh charge supplied. This procedureis not new and has been followed for a number of years particularly in Scotland. riginally the charge wasnot stirred during the heating operation but it has since been discovered that by the use of stirrers the output of gas is increased. When the retort is opened to permit the removal of the exhausted shale and the introduction of a fresh charge air rushes into the retort and consequently the temperature drops so that the heat'lpst must be replaced before the full efficiency of the This present invention relates to certain improvements in the above apparatus by which the retort is kept continuously in operation, the charge being fed and the exhausted material being removed at regular intervals` with a minimum loss of heat. The charge is moved continuously while in the retort, from one end tothe other a number of times, by conveyors in the form of chain drags, the plates thereof acting on the charge during both upper and lower runs.

Referring to the drawings reference nu-Kl meral 20 is used to designate one form of furnace, preferably of brick that may be used to carry outrthis invention. Within the furnace 20 is'the retort 21 which is made up of the compartments 22, 23 and 24. The

shale to be treated is fed into the compart-v ments 22 and 24 and the gas extracted therefrom is led olf through the compartment 23. A sheet-metal lining 25 is provided for the retort in order to reduce the escape of heat through the brick walls 26 of the furnace.

Supported by standards 27 outside the furnace 2O and extending through the furnace are shafts 28, 29, 30, 31, 32 and.33. Three of these shafts pass through the retort 21 near each end. Each shaft is provided with two sprocket wheels 34, one in each of the shale treating compartments 22 and 24 and the sprocket Wheels 34 in each compartment operate a chain conveyor or dra 35 for a purpose tobe explained hereina er.

The sets of wheels 34 with their conveyor 35 are separated in each compartment by horizontal partitions or shelves 36. These shelves are fixed to the end wall of the compartment adjacent the shafts 28, 29 and 30 and terminate i n advance of the wheels 34 on the shafts 31', 32 and 33. The compartments are further divided by horizontal partitions or shelves 37 which extend from above the shafts 31, 32 and 33 to a point in advance of the sprocket wheels on the shafts 28, 29 and 30.

Each of the conveyors 35, illustrated in the drawings, is made up of. a plurality of links 38 which, as shown in Figs. 3, 4 and 5, are integral plates bent down at each side to provide flanges 39 and a fla-t connecting top surface 40. The surface 40 is cut away at each end and through the projecting portions of the flanges 39 are made holes 41 for the fastening pins 42. One end of the link 38 is made narrower than the other end and sleeves 43 and 44 are provided to join the holes 41 in the narrower end. When assembled the flanges at the wider end extend at each side of the narrower end of the adjacent link so that the fastening pin 42 passes through one flange 39, the sleeve 43 and the other flange 39. The sleeve 44 is arranged between the flanges 39 to check any tendency of the flanges to collapse.`

Mounted on each conveyer 35 are a plurality of equally spaced pushers or plates 45 by which the shale is moved over the shelves 37 on the upper run and over the shelves 36 and the bottom of the retort on the lower run. These plates 45 (see Figs. 3, 4 'and 5) are made up of angle irons rigidly fixed to the top surfaces 40 of cert-ain links. Riveted to the flange 46 of the angle iron 47 are angle irons 48 projecting at each side of the link 38. The angle-iron 47 rests upon and is secured to the top surface 40, bolts49 being shown on the drawings as used for that purpose.

In the walls 50 of the compartment 23 are 83 provided rows of holes 51 just below the shelves 36 and 37 and the top plate of the .compartments 22 and 24 so that all the gas extracted from the charges passes olf into the compartment 23. The walls 50 are fixed in position by apertured channeled bars 52 (see Fig. 2) and are secured to the lining 25 of the retort. A series of outlets 53 lead from the compartment to the pipe line 54 by which the extracted gas is taken to the gas treat-ing apparatus where it is broken up and the gasoline and oil are separated out. `While four outlets 53 are here shown united in pairs and then into a single line it is obvious that the number of outlets can be varied as found desirable.

Since one feed mechanism only is provided for both compartments 22 and 24 the walls 50 of the compartment 23 terminate short of the feed mechanism and are joined by an angled plate 55 so that the charge will not enter the. compartment 23 blut will be diverted to the proper compartments. Suitable plates 56 at each end of the plate 55 completely shut olf the feed mechanism from the compartment 23.

The charge of shale or other bitumen containing material is fed into the retort by means of the trap mechanism 60 which is mounted in the top of the furnace equally distant from the sides and adjacent the end bearing the shafts 31, 32 and 33. This mechanism 60 comprises a cylindrical chamber61 closed at the sides. In the top wall of the chamber is provided an inlet 62 while yin the bottom wall is provided an outlet 63 diametrically arranged with relationV to the inlet 62. Centrally mounted in the chamber 61 is a shaft 64 carrying a series of equally spaced` vertical vanes 65. The shaft 64 is provided at its upper end with a bevel gear 66 which meshes with a bevel gear 67 fixed on a horizontal shaft 68. The shaft is mounted in bearings 69 on the top of the furnace and-is driven by power applied to the wheel or sprocket 70 at its outer end. The charge to be fed is conveyed to the mechanism 60 by the chute 71 from an ore crusher (not shown). g

In the bottom plate 25 yof each compartment 22 and 24 below the shaft 33 is provided an outlet 72 from which chute 73 leads to the discharge mechanism 74. l This mechanism corresponds to the feed mechanism ,60 described above and will therefore not be discussed iny detail.

The vanes 75 in the trap 76 which carry the exhausted material from the inlet in the top wall to the outlet in the lower wall and thus to the chute 77 are actuated by a shaft 79 which is driven from a horizontal shaft 80 through the gears 81, the shaft 80 being supported by the bearing arm 82 and driven by power applied to the wheel or sprocket .In the furnace 20 below the retort 21 are provided two fire boxes 84 and 85 by which the retort is heated. In order to insure sumcient. heat the fire boxesare located one at eac-h end of the furnace below all three of the compartments. A brick wall 86 between the tire doors 87 separates the fire boxes. .ln the side walls of the furnace, 20 parallel to and substantially coextensive with the conqiartments 22 and 24 are provided flues 88 and 89 through which the hot air from the lire boxes 84 and 85 passes to the smoke stacks 90 and 91. The smoke stacks 90 and 91'are located at the middle of the fines and each {iue is fed from both fire boxes through passages92 at each end. Obviously therefore the heat from the boxes rises through the passages 92 and passes along the outer .walls of the compartments 22 and 24 so that they are kept at a high temperature. Aspointed out above the fire boxes are under the compartlnent 23, referred to as a cracking tower, so that in case any of the heavier particles carried oft' by the gas drop they aresreheated or cracked and pass off with the rest of the gas.

The apparatus may be set in operation by means of power applied to the wheel 93 on the shaft 30 byY which the conveyor 35 and consequently the sprocket wheel 34 and shaft 33 are driven. A second wheel 94 on the shaft 30 by means of a belt or chain 95 actuates a wheel 96 on the shaft 29, and that shaft through the conveyor 35 actuates the shaft v32. The shaft 29 carries also' a wheel 97 which through the belt or chain 98 sets in rotation the wheel 99' on the shaft 28. The rotation is transmitted by the sprockets 34 and the conveyor 35 to the shaft 31. The shaft 31 carries adjacent one end a wheel 100 which is-connected bya chain 101 with the wheel 70 on the shaft 68 by which the feed mechanism is operated. On the shaft 31 ad'acent the wheel 100 is a wheel 102 which through a `chain 103 operates the wheel 83 on the shaft 80 which actuates the discharge mechanism.

The apparatus above described will be operated in the following manner. After thel retort 21 has been heated by the fire boxes' 84 and 85 to the desired temperature, between 1000o and 1500o Vthe various parts are set inf motion by application of power to the wheel 93. The material to be treated is fed 'by the chute 71 to the inlet 62 of the feed mechanism 60. As the vanes 65 swing around 4the material is shifted from below the inlet 62 to the outlet 63 thru which it drops onto the angled plate and thence onto the upper shelves 37 in the compartments 22 and 24. The further movement of the mal terial and the gas extracted therefrom is along by the pushers 45 until the end of the shelf 36 near the shaft 31 is reached. The material again falls to the next lower shelf and the above operation is repeated until the now exhausted material passes 4down the chute 73 to the discharge mechanism 74 and out of the furnace.

i During its travel the material has been subjected to great heat so that all the volatile or semi-volatile elements have been driven olf a gas through the openings 51, outlets 53 and pipe line 54,' and has been stirred and agitated to such an extent that when it reaches the chute all the desired elements have been removed.

While one embodiment only has been shown and described applicant is not to be limited thereby since it is obvious that others can be made without departing from the Sprit and scopeof the invention as set forth in the following claims.

Having set forth my invention that which I claim as new and for which I desirethe protection of Letters Patent of the United States is the following:

1. In an apparatus for extracting gas from bitumen containing material, a retort consisting of two compartments in-'whic'h the material is treated, means for heating said retort. a third compartment between the first two situated directly over said heating means into which the gas extracted from the material in both said first named compartments escapes, said third compartment having a solid bottom and an outlet at the top for said gas.

2. In an apparatus for extracting gas from bitumen containingmaterial, retort consisting of two compartments in which the material is treated, means for heating-said f retort, a third compartment between the first two, situated directly over said lheating means into which the gas extracted from the material in both said first named compartments escapes, said third compartment fhaving a solid bottom and a single feeding means supplying both said first named cornpartments.

3. In an apparatus for extracting gas from bitumen containing material, a retort, means for heating said retort, a cracking tower comprising a compartment directly over said heating means within said retort having holes in its walls through which thel gas extracted from the material `contained in said retort enters the cracking tower and pipes for leading oft' the gas from said tower.

4. In an apparatus for extracting gas from bitumen containing material, a. retort, means for heating said retort, a cracking tower comprising a compartment directly over said heating means within said retort adjacent a compartment in which the material is treated, openings through the Wall between saifl tower` and said compartment, compartment directly y over said Lheating and pipes for leading oil' the gas from said means between said compartments, openings i0 tower. in the walls between said tower and said 5. In an apparatus for extracting gas compartments and pipes for leading olf the 5 from bitumen containing material, a retort gas from said tower,

consistingl of two compartments in which In testimony whereof, I aix my signathe material is treated, means for heating ture. said retort, a cracking tower comprising a EMANUEL W. HARTMAN. 

